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The Sharks (35-21-9, 2nd Pacific) face a strong opportunity to continue their short streak of dominance tonight as they host the struggling Columbus Blue Jackets (32-28-5, 6th Metropolitan) at home. After two resounding wins this week, a 5-2 beating of the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday and a 7-2 thrashing of the Chicago Blackhawks on Thursday (including a three point night for perennial Norris favorite Dylan DeMelo), the Sharks are flying high, and a meeting with a team that's lost 11 of their 16 games since the All-Star break (5-9-2) bodes well.
The Jackets are finishing up a road trip through California that can be generously described as forgettable, so far. Back to back games against the Kings and Ducks in SoCal on Thursday and Friday left the Columbus squad with zero points, a -5 goal differential, and an inescapable sense of existential dread. That may be overstating it, but they're currently tied with the Carolina Hurricanes just outside the Eastern Conference playoff picture, and that's not generally a good place to be.
The Sharks, on the other hand, are riding a tidy two game winning streak as mentioned above, and are 7-3-1 in their last 11 games. San Jose won the first meeting of the season with the Jackets, you may remember it as February 2nd, when our boys recorded a convincing 3-1 win in Columbus.
With a 6-3 win over those very same Blackhawks, the Ducks are just one lonely point behind the Sharks for second place in the Pacific and the home ice that comes along with it, so if the Sharks can keep up some portion of the absurd momentum that carried them through this last week into tonight, a win would slow a lot of pulses around here.
Sharks Lines
Evander Kane -- Joe Pavelski -- Joonas Donskoi
Tomas Hertl -- Logan Couture -- Mikkel Boedker
Timo Meier -- Chris Tierney -- Kevin Labanc
Barclay Goodrow -- Eric Fehr -- Melker Karlsson
Joakim Ryan -- Brent Burns
Marc-Edouard Vlasic -- Justin Braun
Brenden Dillon -- Dylan DeMelo
Martin Jones
Aaron Dell
Scratched: Tim Heed, Paul Martin, Jannik Hansen, Marcus Sorensen
Injured: Joe Thornton (knee), Joel Ward (shoulder)
DeMelos three assist night against Chicago on Thursday must have really ruffled Heed's feathers. It probably confirmed all of Petey's suspicions that DeMelo has finally cast off his outer husk and emerged from his chrysalis into the blinding light of a new day as the neo-Orr he was always meant to be.
Also, Fehr's back.
Blue Jackets Lines
Artemi Panarin -- Pierre-Luc Dubois -- Cam Atkinson
Sonny Milano -- Nick Foligno -- Oliver Bjorkstrand
Thomas Vanek -- Brandon Dubinsky -- Boone Jenner
Matt Calvert -- Mark Letestu -- Lukas Sedlak
Zach Werenski -- Seth Jones
Ryan Murray -- Jack Johnson
Ian Cole -- David Savard
Sergei Bobrovsky
Joonas Korpisalo
Scratched: Taylor Chorney, Scott Harrington, Markus Hannikainen
Injured: Alexander Wennberg (upper body), Dean Kukan (upper body), Markus Nutivaara (upper body), Josh Anderson (knee)
Where to watch
Broadcast: NBCSCA, FS-O
Stream: NHL.tv / NHL App
Radio: 98.5 KFOX / NHL App / Sharks App